midi instrument creator

I want someone to use sensors/triggers/transducers and a MIDI input/output box that would output into my computer (using Ableton, probably) so that I can plug and play with any object to create music. The object I have in mind currently is a giant wheel and its spokes, so that hitting or stroking each spoke would bring up a sound or musical phrase, etc., according to how I assign sounds or musical phrases to each sensor in Ableton. I want to use at least 8 sensors, preferably 16.